<Begin Segment 15>

DM: So at that time, your mother is receiving these letters from your father from all over the country, different place every time. Was that hard on you and your siblings to not have your father around?

AM: Oh, yeah, because my mother, my brother was four years younger than I, and he was a handful. And my mother just always had problems trying to discipline him, and she couldn't, cause he was just a recalcitrant kid, he's a boy. And when I think about him now as a child growing up, I think all the problems my mother said she had with him were because he was a boy and she was used to having two girls. And all of a sudden she gets this boy, who's a little big younger than the rest of, my sister and me, and he was spoiled because he was a boy and he was the first boy who survived. My father's family had all girls, didn't have boys. So yeah, to have a son was an incredible important thing for the family. And my mother didn't have any problems with me, because I was always such a good kid, right? And took care of everybody. But my sister was called "Happy" because she was always, her nickname was Happy when she was in camp because she was always laughing and smiling, she had lots of friends. I didn't have the same kind of experience in camp as my sister did. When there's a reunion, my sister had all kinds of friends, and I didn't have any because I spent most of my time tine trying to help my mother, I guess.

DM: So for you, a lot of your, your childhood or your young teenage years were really taken away from you, then.

AM: Yeah, it was. I spent most of the time worrying about my father and my mother and my... you know, I have to tell you something I found out. I did not know this, but I asked for my family archival material, and I can't remember how much we had to pay, but several pennies per page, and I spent quite a number of dollars getting the materials. Among them I had about twelve letters that I had written to the President of the United States, to J. Edgar Hoover, the Department of Justice, the general, and these letters, I mean, they're letters that I had written, handwritten in my handwriting saying that my father has not, should not be imprisoned, that they had no cause to imprison him, and please release him. And the amazing thing is each one of those letters had a response from whoever I addressed. I don't remember, the President's was from the office, not from the President, Office of the President, in which they said there's nothing they could do, and you had to stay in, in prison. But I wrote those letters and I do not even remember doing that, which led me to realize I must have had somebody who was a mentor who helped me do that. How would I have gotten those names and addresses? How would I know that? Where would I get the money to spend on stamps? It was three cents at that time, I think, to mail a letter, but that was a lot of money. And when I think about that, what is amazing to me is that I know that I must have had a mentor. I think that, I think I know who it was but I'm not sure. I just wish that I could recover that memory so that I could at least mentally thank him or her, whoever it was, because somebody had to have helped me. And I didn't have any relatives, most of my relatives were busy with their babies and little kids, these are my second cousins and first cousins. So I had no one that I know of that I could identify who was my mentor, but I had to have someone who would help me through that. 'Cause I, I mean, can you imagine me as a seventeen year old or eighteen year old knowing how to address a letter? I wouldn't have done, I don't think I could have done it. That's one of my regrets, is that I don't remember who that is.

DM: So you did get responses, but the responses didn't try to justify in any way.

AM: Oh, no. Just that sorry, he has to stay there. He sent you the message, but he couldn't do anything about it.

DM: So when did your father, when was he reunited with the family?

AM: Well, the closest that I could recall is that it was probably in July of 1944 that he was allowed to join us from Kooskia. And I remember, I remember one thing that I had sense enough to do, and that is I borrowed, I got two more blankets issued, and I remember putting blankets up so that my mother and dad would have privacy. And hang it -- don't ask me how I figured this out, but I did that, and I remember hanging the blankets up so that they would have some privacy when he finally got there. Because you know, after all, he was only forty-four at that time. So when I think about that, how did I know that, to do that? But I remember borrowing some hammers and nails and banging on the beams across the ceiling so they would have some privacy.

DM: Well, always taking care of other people.

AM: Yeah, I was always -- well, don't ask me how I knew that, but somehow it's part of the psyche, I guess.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.